Aledade Acquires VBC Analytics Provider Curia

There are dozens of companies fighting for the independent primary care crown, but as of right now it looks like that crown belongs to Aledade. After adding more than 450 new practices in 2023, Aledade is now the nation’s largest network of independent primary care.

How does a value-based care enabler defend that crown? If you’re Aledade, you acquire VBC analytics company Curia to push your advantage.

Curia uses “practical applications of AI” to optimize the targeting of patient care, identify risk gaps, and predict the likelihood of adverse outcomes – three areas core to Aledade’s value-based performance. 

  • The acquisition follows a pilot where Aledade leveraged Curia’s predictive algorithm to target patients with the highest risk for two-year mortality with advance care planning services. Safe to say that went well. 
  • Aledade now plans on folding Curia’s tech into its existing solutions while exploring new use cases such as preventing hospitalizations and improving engagement programs.

To give you an idea of what it takes to have the largest independent primary care network in the country, Aledade works with over 1.5k practices, 5k PCPs, and 15k clinicians across 45 states.

  • Aledade recently closed a $123M Series E that helped it scale to over two million patients covered by 150+ value-based contracts across Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and commercial payors. 
  • Playing in all of those different arenas gives Aledade a big leg-up on most of its VBC enablement competition. MA-focused comparable agilon health last reported 356k members live on its platform, and Oak Street had 59k at-risk members when it was scooped up by CVS for $10.6B.

The Takeaway

Aledade’s scale and nearly half a billion in funding both seem to suggest that an IPO would be a logical next move, although it’s CEO Dr. Farzad Mostashari is on the record saying “the most likely scenario for Aledade to be able to continue our mission is to remain an independent company.” Although that could just be a headfake, the fact that Aledade recently changed its legal structure to a Public Benefit Corporation suggests that it intends on walking the talk and remaining independent as it focuses on delivering better outcomes for everyone, not just its shareholders.

Aledade Raises $123M to Fuel MA Growth

Medicare Advantage. Value-based care. Positive earnings. Aledade is hitting all the right themes with the announcement for the close of its $123M Series E funding round.

The raise lifted the value-based care enabler’s private valuation to $3.1B, and it intends to push its advantage at a time when many health tech startups are cutting back due to frothy-at-best market conditions.

Aledade partners with independent practices and health centers to establish tech-enabled accountable care organizations. It uses data analytics and guided workflows to help better manage high risk patients, then shares in the success of its partners’ value-based contracts.

  • The company currently works with over 1k independent primary care practices to generate more than $300M in annual revenue, and it ranks among the coveted digital health startups consistently turning a profit.
  • Aledade’s nearly 150 value-based care contracts collectively cover over 1.7M lives, including 220k Medicare Advantage patients. At this scale, Aledade says that a 1% increase in the savings rate attained by its risk-bearing partners would generate an additional $100M in revenue.

The fresh funding will help Aledade expand deeper into the Medicare Advantage market, while also enabling it to deliver more services directly to patients under its new Aledade Care Solutions branch formed during the January acquisition of Iris Healthcare. 

  • Aledade Care Solutions provides wraparound services like Iris’ advanced care planning solutions to Aledade’s partner practices. 
  • The business unit lets Aledade leverage its existing data platform to identify and deliver care to the patients that would benefit the most from additional services, and Aledade CEO Dr. Farzad Mostashari lists kidney care and behavioral health as possible expansion areas.

The Takeaway

Aledade’s software-led model for enabling risk-based arrangements is highly scalable, allowing it to be more capital efficient than competitors focused on building value-based primary care clinics from the ground up. Although these efficiencies have led to two years of positive earnings that probably indicate Aledade could have held off on a funding round, the difficult conditions of the current market have created the perfect moment for Aledade to take on new capital and gain ground in key areas like Medicare Advantage while its competitors are on their heels.

Aledade Acquires Care Planning Company Iris Healthcare

Value-based care enablement company Aledade announced the acquisition of Iris Healthcare, a provider of Advance Care Planning (ACP) solutions for the seriously ill.

  • Aledade uses data analytics and guided workflows to help primary care practices with the shift to value-based care. The company’s platform helps practices identify and better manage their highest risk patients.
  • Iris Healthcare provides ACP services aimed at reducing unnecessary care while ensuring that critically ill patients receive care consistent with their values and preferences by formally documenting those wishes in an advance directive.
  • The tuck-in acquisition will see Iris’ ACP offerings folded into Aledade’s new health services unit called Aledade Care Solutions, which is designed to give the company’s partners more ways to address their current inefficiencies.
  • Combining Iris’ services with Aledade’s predictive algorithm and data will help better identify patients who could benefit from ACP, which demonstrated better outcomes and higher patient satisfaction following a successful pilot program last year.

Change the Model, Change the Results

Aledade’s software-led model for assisting providers is highly scalable, allowing it to be more capital efficient than competitors that are building value-based primary care clinics from scratch. The company’s contracts collectively cover more than 1.7M patients (up 20% from last year), and it’s operations rank it among the coveted healthcare startups that are turning a profit.

Aledade was profitable for the second straight year in 2021 with gross revenue of $300M, a figure that it expects to double by 2023.

Get the top digital health stories right in your inbox

You might also like..

Select All

You're signed up!

It's great to have you as a reader. Check your inbox for a welcome email.

-- The Digital Health Wire team

You're all set!